Carrier Billing on Google Play for Movies, Music and Books

By Pradeep Chandrasekaran on 05/03/2012 06:48 PST

If you have ever decided to not purchase anything from Google Play prior to this just because it required a credit card, you might be able to do so soon enough. Google announced carrier billing for apps from the Android Market (now renamed) awhile back and has been working with several carriers around the world to make it available to its subscribers. With this feature, users will be able to purchase things from the Play Store and charge it to their monthly bill as opposed to their credit cards.

Now that it has had time in the shallow waters, the company has decided to expand it to all types of Google Play content including apps, music, movies and books. Unfortunately, this expansion means another bout of discussion with each and every carrier involved with Android devices which is nearly all of them. Google will be working closely with the carriers to bring this feature to you but it will need time so it isn’t immediately available on all carriers where app billing was already available. Initially, T-Mobile in America along with NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank in Japan will be implementing the feature with Sprint being another major US carrier which is allegedly “soon” to follow. What do you think about this feature that is soon to arrive? Would it help or hurt?